rendering found in the margin. The passage is dramatic, and in tense moments words are

often omitted. "O nations, rejoice ye" (and then, as it were, His people are pointed to)

"see His people".

The third quotation is from Psalm 117: 1 and in this case there is very little

difference between the LXX, the Hebrew original, and the Apostle's own words.

Psalm 117: has the distinction of being the shortest of all the psalms, and was possibly

used as a doxology for other psalms.

The Apostle does not intend to make a close scrutiny of these passages. The bare fact

that the O.T. writers included the Gentiles at all is sufficient for his purpose, even though

the primary meanings of the passages cited may not always fully coincide with the

Apostle's application. This is entirely in harmony with the usual Rabbinical method of

argument. A good example of this is found in Rom. 10: 5-10, where the appeal to

Deut. 30: 9, 12, 13 and 14 sounds almost fantastic to Gentile ears.

The Apostle's fourth quotation, however, is treated more fully and is commended

upon a passage that has a most important bearing:

The Apostle again quotes here from the LXX, which differs somewhat from the

Hebrew, which is as follows:

While there are considerable verbal differences in the two renderings, the sense is

much the same, the differences resulting largely from the turning of the figurative into the

literal. The Hebrew word for "ensign", nes, occurs in the title Jehovah-Nissi--"The

Lord, my Banner" (Exod. 17: 15), and is also translated "pole", "sign", "banner",

"ensign", and "standard".  The fact that the "Root of Jesse" was to stand up as an

"ensign", signified that He was to be the Leader, Whose tent would be the rallying-point

for the people. Hence He could be called: "The One Who stands up to rule the peoples."

The changing of the word "seek" to "trust" is again but another way of looking at the

same idea. However difficult it may appear to us now to justify this translation, it

apparently held no difficulties for the Apostle, or for those whom he was addressing.

We return now to Rom. 15: to notice the lesson that the Apostle deduces from this

passage in Isa. 11: Before we can fully appreciate his argument, however, we must

notice one or two facts that are not immediately obvious.

First of all, the word "trust" in Rom. 15: 12 is elpizo, while the word "hope" in

verse 13 is elpis. It is obviously misleading to translate the verb in verse 12 "trust" and

the corresponding noun in verse 13 "hope", and yet this is what we find in the A.V. Both

words, the noun and the verb, occur together in  Rom. 8: 24  and are correctly